Frankenstein Takes the Cake

I think it's about time to start previewing stuff from my September book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Details about it have already been trickling onto the web, including some nice reviews here and here.
So this blog is far from the only place where you can see the finished cover, but first thing's first. I also posted a color sketch of same previously. Oh, and happy 4th, if you're American.

BEA Memories

'Bout time I posted some pictures from my visit to Book Expo last month in LA. This was hands down the most fun I've ever had at a signing. No offense to the guy last year in the gorilla suit.

I include the first photo, in which I am relaxing in a rotating restaurant/bar with the Gorgeous Ladies of Harcourt (GLOH), only to document that I'm drinking something called a Gummitini that has actual Gummi bears drowned at the bottom, silently evanescing in their boozy grave.

The remaining photos document the signing itself, at which Frankenstein and his Bride renewed their vows and had cake. It was all, of course, to commemorate the debut of my new book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake, which will be in stores in September.

Stickyfish Explained

I received a really amazing email about a month ago from one Tom Speers. Speers bought a copy of The True Meaning of Smekday recently, liked it, and passed it around his office. These photos are from this office, where Tom says some Boov and Smekday-related, non HR-approved materials have been appearing lately, wrenching old Dilbert cartoons free of their pushpins and subverting the natural order of things.
One of the photos shows Tom's own rules for Stickyfish, a sport I only mentioned in passing in my book:

STICKYFISH
The Game Of Boov Champions

Stickyfish is the most popular of Boovish games.

It is played by teams of thirty-six Boov. The total number of teams playing in any one game is determined by the Referee (known as the Eeeurrrp), who drops a nine-sided cube (known as the Zoool) in the middle of the playing field when no one is watching. The number which comes up on the Zoool (One through Nine) determines the number of Stickyfish teams which will play -- unless the number is Zero, in which case all nine potential teams declare themselves victorious and everyone goes for pizza. If the number One comes up, all nine potential teams are declared to have lost, and everyone goes for pizza.

The goal is to carry the Stickyfish (known as The Stickyfish) across the goal line of any opposing team, during Nine periods of play (known collectively as Krooom), lasting approximately twelve minutes each, with a break after the Fifth Kroo. Each time the Stickyfish crosses a goal line counts as One Point. Having three or more teams on the field results in spirited games and multiple scores; the winner, naturally, is the team who scores the highest number of points.

The break period is sometimes referred to as "The Fifth Krooo Arglbargl", as during this pause, individual Stickyfish team members congregate, hold conversations and discussions about world events, take photos, trade Boovish Stickyfish player cards, consult the Touching Tree Oracle, order snacks, and so forth; the noise resulting from these activities sounds like "Argle-bargle Argle-bargle".

The Stickyfish is an actual Boovish fish, approximately 24 to 36 inches in length, capable of holding it's breath for up to four hours. It spends the "The Fifth Krooo Arglbargl" resting in a tub of partially desalinated Gatorade. During the game, there are few written rules governing how a team may carry the Stickyfish across an opponent's goal line, except that tradition dictates it must be physically carried by a member of a team -- it cannot be tossed, thrown, launched, de-materialized or teleported.

While the Boov sometimes prefer a direct approach, there is plentiful opportunity in Stickyfish for subterfuge and misdirection -- ranging from shouting, "Hey! You are to be looking up there!" to distract an opposing player, all the way to full musical theatre productions, or attempts to sell an entire opposing team on the idea of term life insurance.

One team, the legendary BIGFIELD FIGHTING KOOBISH used the insurance sales tactic so well with a rival team that they scored repeated goals by carrying the Stickyfish across the goal, backing up, then crossing again, while the other team was busy filling out medical history forms . The final score was 691 To 0, a score never since equalled in Stickyfish league play.

It should be noted that Stickyfish Day is now an official Candian holiday.

You're Cordially Invited...

...to the wedding of Frankenstein and his Bride. Where? Book Expo America 2008, at the Harcourt Children's Books booth (#1400). When? This Friday, May 30th, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Will there be cake? THERE WILL BE CAKE.

I will also be signing my new picture book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake.

Gordon!

Had a great time at the Philadelphia Book Festival last weekend. Thanks to everyone who came to see me. And Brian Biggs and I got our picture taken with Sesame Street's Roscoe Orman! As Brian said right before this picture was taken, Sesame Street had a lot to do with people our age getting into this business.

Has he aged a day since I watched the show in the seventies? I don't think he has.

Hulk at the Tropicana, 1965

EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that readers may not realize I made this short myself. So, for what it's worth, I made this short myself. There is no one else to blame.

Magic Carpet, R.I.P.

I just learned via BoingBoing that beloved Tucson institution Magic Carpet Golf closed for good recently. I'm in Philly right now, but I lived in Tucson for ten years, and never failed to appreciate Magic Carpet's funny/scary magnificence while driving by. Even in the nineties it was a thing of beauty that was nonetheless cracking up and falling apart, like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
I guess this is the problem with a lot of beloved institutions: in my ten years in Tucson, I think I only played golf there twice. Like the ice cream truck or reruns of Are You Being Served?, I always expected it to be there even if I never wanted to partake.
There's a beautiful flickr set here, taken after it closed.

Post Post

I was itching to post something, so here's something–a book cover, copyright Wizards of the Coast.

TRIVIA CHALLENGE! Name the monsters in the background. Extra credit for both the Type number and the common name. The winner will receive the admiration that always accompanies knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons ephemera.

Philadelphia Book Festival

I'll be stopping by the Philadelphia Book Festival on Saturday the 17th at 3:00 for some reading and signing. Come see me in the Story Hour Room of the Main Branch of the Free Library at 19th and Vine.
It'll be the day after my 35th birthday, so I'll finally be constitutionally eligible to kick off my campaign for the Presidency. So feel free to ask me to shake your hand or kiss your baby.
I'm the kind of candidate who thinks that hard-working Americans shouldn't have to read a whole blog post without getting to see a picture of a cuttlefish stuck to a puppet head, so here you go:

The Norton Award

So my novel, The True Meaning of Smekday (not pictured), was nominated for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. That award was presented last night, and it was presented to J.K.Rowling. And I knew it would be, what with the final book of the Harry Potter series in contention. Now Ms. Rowling can squeeze the Norton into the vast undermountain storage facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania where she keeps all her awards and money.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share the statement that would have been read at the awards banquet if I had won. But I didn't.

TO BE READ AT THE NEBULA/NORTON
AWARDS BANQUET, IN THE EVENT THAT
ADAM REX WINS THE NORTON AWARD:

Wow. Really? Gosh, I should have come. As it happens, I’m currently at home in Philadelphia, feverishly working on the illustrations for a picture book that’s six months past due. And I really didn’t think I was going to win.

But now I wish I’d attended, of course. I don’t even know who’s reading this. Does he read well? Maybe it’s a she. And I don’t know what the venue in which you’re all crowded looks like. If nobody minds, I’m going to go ahead and imagine that it looks like that scene at the Galactic Senate in Star Wars Episode 1 where everybody’s riding those hockey pucks.

Thank you to everyone who has read The True Meaning of Smekday, particularly the members of the nominating and selection committees. And thank you to my fellow nominees, and to all kids’ authors who strive to keep the bar high.

And…if we could all imagine now that that “get-off-the-stage” music is starting to play…I make my exit, waving graciously, seated in the plush throne of a tricked-out hockey puck pulled by tiny unicorns or whatever.

Thank You.

So There's a Primary Here Tomorrow...

...but otherwise I'm currently working late into the night in my wife's office, here at the University of Pennsylvania. And one of Marie's colleagues tries to head home via the rear doors of the Physics building, only to be escorted back inside by the Secret Service. Seems he has to exit another way. So this is when Marie and I stick our heads outside for the first time in four hours, and learn that Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea Clinton are all not more than 200 feet away from us, speaking to a large crowd in the basketball arena.

Four Cats

From left to right: Jarrett Krosoczka, Baker, Me, and Taylor at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Dallas.

Big Blue Marble

Come join me at Big Blue Marble Books in Mt. Airy, Pennsylvania on Saturday, the 12th. I'll be there at 2 PM as part of the Mt. Airy Kid's Literature Festival, reading and guessing people's weight.

Preliminary Magic

Thought I'd show a little process from one of the Magic card images below: Oona, Queen of the Fae.
I stared with a couple rough poses, but decided to send Wizards of the Coast something like the basically symmetrical, frontal view at the bottom. She's something of a goddess, so I thought the image should have sort of a religious icon look to it.

Anyway, Wizards didn't like it, so I started playing around with different poses...

...and we eventually settled on the image below.

Oh, What A Magic Week It's Been...

...but all things must come to an end, and so Skeleton whispers a cold, inky goodbye.

Skeleton is a highly altered excerpt from a Magic card I painted called "Terror." Ironically, he is perhaps the least terrifying thing about it, so I chose not to publish the image here in its original form. I expect this blog gets a fair number of visits from people who like the way I draw funny animals, and they don't deserve it.

So Magic, This Week

This one's being used on packaging for the upcoming set, Shadowmoor. These Bug-eyed Hobbity things are about to have their Bag Ends handed to them by a couple of Ents. Of course the upper right is my favorite part.

Magic Week Rolls On

A Faerie Queen. This wasn't my character design. I should probably be clear that none of these I've posted this week were entirely my character designs–I got to spin some more than others.

Magic Week Continued

Here's one of my favorites. It's not a Magic card, but rather the cover of a Magic novel that ties in to the newest set. A couple of the fishmen are a little wonky, but I love the old school horror movie dynamic between the main fishman and the seriously unlucky elf. And the bio-luminescent nouveau vines.

Magic Week

This week I want to show some Magic: The Gathering art I've never shown anywhere else on my blog or portfolio site.
Magic, and their parent company, Wizards of the Coast, paid nearly all my bills for years, particularly the long frustrating years when I was trying to get a break in children's publishing.
Here's a pretty lady giant, getting her flying goat groomed by hobbits or whatever.

Character In Search of a Story #9

Boy, I haven't posted anything in a while.
I've sort of been keeping my head down, trying to get on top of the book I'm working on. But here's a C.S.S. I drew a long time ago and never posted.

BILL FUFFO
and here's C.S.S. #8.

Great Art From Friends' Central School

More great kids' art, this time from Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, PA. (Click for larger view)
At top left is me with one of their classes, who suggested I draw this Frankenstein-chicken-giraffe creature. Then we have some great sandwich sculptures. Next is the Shaffex, an Adam Rex-giraffe-fish creature drawn by Chloe! Then there's a sign with some Boov at the bottom, and a portrait of the class or classes that made the sandwiches. Lastly, a bunch of sculptures of Boov and Boov accessories. Thanks for a great visit, FCS!

Appearance at Elkins Park

I should have mentioned this earlier. I'll be appearing at the Elkins Park Library in Cheltenham Township, PA Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. It's all a part of their Read Across America Celebration. I'll read, show pictures, guess your weight and age, the usual thing. See you there!
Elkins Park Free Library, 563 Church Rd., Cheltenham, PA

Back Pattery Redux

Some really great developments for The True Meaning of Smekday recently:

It won a Cuffie (the Off the Cuff awards compiled annually by Publishers Weekly based on a poll of booksellers) for Funniest Book of the year, tying with Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

It was named best of 2007 in the Fantasy and Science Fiction category of the Cybils (the Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards). Pssst! was also short-listed for the Fiction Picture Book award, incidentally.

Finally, Smekday has been short-listed for the 2007 Andre Norton Award for best in YA Fantasy or Science Fiction.

I am gratefully speechless about all this, so here's a picture of Dracula holding a piece of garlic bread.

Inside the Secret Lair

–The world will rue the day it crossed Grit Sanderson!

–Right, no doubt. Who’s he again?

–Wh–I’m Grit Sanderson! That was my name before I became the bitter Doctor Chill!

–Oh.

–I thought you knew that.

–No. Huh.

–What?

–Nothing. You were saying? They’d rue the day?

–YES! The world will tremble in fear when–

–Your name is really Grit Sanderson?

–Don’t you think I’d know?

–It’s just…how is it you don’t have some…like…sand powers or something? Grit? Sanderson?

–Well my parents didn’t name me after I fell into the vat of liquid helium–

–I know, I know, but…still, that’s just how these things usually work out. Lightning Lord’s real name is Fry Watts. Grizzly Blair’s name really is Blair. Blair Honeytree, actually.

–Yes, I know Blair, thank you. We used to date.

–I figured you’d be…I.C. Weathers, or something.

–No.

–Nippy Winters…

–I want to be alone.

Wyncote Elementary

I had a great visit with this school recently, and I wanted to share some of the kids' art. The teachers there devised some very clever projects that tie in with one or more of my books. Like conversations between students and animals at the zoo, a la my book, Pssst!

And speaking of Pssst!, collaged vehicles, like this rocket:

Ooh! Monsters!

And aliens. Look at that Boov on the left!

And I'd like to end with a disgusting sandwich.

Thanks, Wyncote! By the way, if you're a Wyncote student and you made one of these, sorry if I blurred your name. It seemed like the right thing to do.